Walls in Spain: Portugal and more!

My childhood friend, Beth, came to visit a few weeks ago. I have put off writing this post because I know that it is impossible for me to capture how amazing her visit was in words or in pictures. We did our best to take as many pictures as possible and I joked that we could probably wallpaper a room with selfies alone! Beth and I realized that we have been friends for 38 years and we really do sometimes act like we are still 12 years old!

Of course, I showed her the sites around Barcelona, but we also wanted to have an adventure so we decided to head to Portugal. The plan was to fly into Lisbon, stay there a couple of days and then rent a car and drive south to the beaches along the Algarve Coast. We didn't do much research beforehand, but we had Rick Steves and Lonely Planet along to help.

When we arrived in Lisbon, we weren't able to check into our Airbnb yet so we hauled our suitcases around, following a walking tour suggested by Rick. It was nice to get to our Airbnb so that we could leave our suitcases and cool off. Note that there was a heat wave in Lisbon while we were there so it was hotter than hot! We pushed through the heat and walked around the city, especially enjoying the Alfama neighborhood. Lots to do and see there including Fado music one evening.

We rode the trolleys as we were told to do (by Rick!) and that was fun, but also hot!! Our favorite outing was our visit to the National Tile Museum. It was calm, cool and quiet and really amazing to see all of the beautiful tiles. Plus, the restaurant there was great and we loved the quiche! We also visited the Jeronimos Monastery in the Belem area and that was impressive!

After a couple of packed days in Lisbon, we hauled ourselves and our suitcases to the car rental place, but unfortunately, we couldn't pick up the car until later in the afternoon. So we made the most of our day and ventured over to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum which covered the gamut of art through the ages. We were excited to head to the beach, so we got our car as soon as we could and headed south.

Our first stop was Vila Nova de Milfontes which is a charming seaside town made up of white stucco buildings, winding streets and lots of different beaches. We started our visit there by chasing our first sunset of many and enjoyed a bottle of rose on the beach. We ate delicious fresh fish in the sweet little town and spent a wonderful day on a secluded little beach that we had to walk through (the very cold water!) to get to. It was amazing. We were hesitant to leave, but we had to get to our next destination which was Sagres. We sought out a few beaches along the way and were always lucky enough to find rockstar parking so we made sure to take advantage and spend some time in the sun. The water was cold at all of the beaches, but I decided to jump in and enjoy. Beth was not so keen on the cold water.

Sagres was a surf town and it was full of hippies! We spent time wandering around, chasing the setting sun (which took us to the westernmost point of Europe) and enjoying a lovely walk along the cliffs above the ocean. Our next destination we thought was Budens, but it really ended up being Figueira. This place had one of the most amazing beaches I have ever been to. It is very secluded - in fact, you have to walk about a half a mile on a tiny path to get there after you have driven forever to get to where you can park. But it is well worth the effort. We spent as much time as possible on this little slice of heaven!

We also spent a day in Lagos which turned out to be a pretty cool place with numerous beaches. At first, we spent time on Meia Praia, which is a huge, wide, white sand beach that reminded us a lot of the beaches in South Carolina. We enjoyed a wonderful fresh fish lunch here that was definitely memorable. We then discovered some other unique and smaller beaches closer to the town after we saw them from a boat we took to visit the grottos in Lagos. That boat tour was definitely a highlight of our week! The captain took us into little caves and through holes in the rocks and we were oohing and aahing along with our boatmates! It was really spectacular!!

Our final destination in Portugal was the town of Alvor. We had the pleasure of experiencing a beautiful sunset on the beach there. It was amazing and we took about a million pictures to capture the moment! There is a boardwalk that runs along the entire beach with restaurants along the way. We ended up renting two chairs and a little cabana umbrella on the beach for our last day and totally enjoyed it! We both talked about going back to Alvor to spend more time luxuriating there!

We were set to fly out of Faro back to Barcelona so we drove there from Alvor. There were fires at the time in and around Faro so the drive there was spooky. Plus we were sad to leave our adventure! Beth and I had an amazing time seeing the sites and exploring new places, but the most fun we had was just hanging out and laughing together. I have not laughed so much in a very long time, but look forward to again when Beth comes back for our next adventure!! I can't wait!!